An annual Leamington holiday event will not be happening this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mike Diab, the organizer of "Talking Over Turkey" says it was a difficult decision but he has decided to cancel this year's turkey giveaway.
He says he's sorry.
"We're having trouble really being able to launch Talking Over Turkey this year," says Diab. "We've been watching some of the COVID trajectory numbers and we're not really comfortable doing it this year. You know our campaign is all about congregation and people getting together hundreds, thousands of people sometimes. It just seems very tricky for us to be able to do it without caution and worrying about being spreaders and spreading the COVID."
He's asking the community to help out local charities this holiday season.
"We're going to hold off this year I think very sadly and want to make sure that you understand that charities are really important in small towns or any town," says Diab. "They're very important. They have a place. They need to be funded and they need to be stocked so maybe you can do that individually this year."
Last year more than 600 turkeys with all the fixings were handed out to Leamington families in need.
Diab plans to resume the turkey giveaway in 2021.